Ling's Wok Shop — Restaurant in Scottsdale

Lets start with what worked:

The outdoor seating area is nice and large allowing people interested in social distancing to do so (and the misters +++) Soup was tasty I was told by my fellow diner that the ahi appetizer tasted good. I was reimbursed for the ahi appetizer I returned. Manager (female) was professional, listened well and was a credit to restaurant.

Here is what didn't work:

Upon arrival being told by wait staff that for this visit we could order at the table but in the future we needed to queue inside, place order then be seated. My objections are: A. at 50 dollars for 2 appetizers, a cup of soup and a side of cauliflower, a little table side service isn't unreasonable; and B. see #1 from what worked - going inside to order defeats attempts to maintain social distance.

Related to #1, Im not a big fan of restaurants that require payment prior to eating. In particular, tipping service before you get any. Underscoring this, when handed the mobile payment processor it had defaulted to 20% gratuity, with the lowest option being 18%. Look, I have no problem with a 20% gratuity provided service merits it; on this particular day service missed: bringing any kind of beverage to my lunch companion, did not ask how food was, did not attempt to refill my green tea, and did not validate my complaint regarding my food, which Ill get to more in a moment.

My soup bowl... small. comically. Really, I laughed out loud. In fact, if Ling's is going to stay the course with the soup bowls, I recommend not using the large format asian spoon common to asian soups. The ratio of spoon to bowl is not doing them any favors. Yes, I understand if you want more soup you order the bowl potion but this was by a galactic margin the smallest cup Ive ever seen.

My seared ahi appetizer was not seared. Have a look at the photos, and see if you can identify which was mine and which was my lunch companion's. Wait staff struggled to identify a problem with my order - not impressed.

I realize this is a new restaurant but here is my take on the bottom line:

Overpriced and when you get down to it, not terribly interesting execution. Perhaps if I had eaten my ahi Id have a different take, but given the complexion of the entire meal, that's...

This is kind of a fast casual place where you order at the counter and they bring the food to your table. That being said- the prices are too high. We each got an entree, a soda, and we each chose an appetizer to try. It was nearly a hundred bucks after tip. If I'm paying this much, I want to sit down and have a server come to my table. I can't stand having to stand up at a counter, craning my neck, feeling rushed to make a decision- unless I'm getting a really cheap meal. However- The food was really good. Very different flavor profiles than the typical asian restaurant. I'd say it was definitely above average. They have several seafood offerings, scallops, shrimp, calamari- which is great. I thought the garlic sauce on my noodles was really great- with a deep flavor that was a welcome surprise. The drink situation was odd. You basically get a child sized fountain drink, and then the server has to refill it. It was ok for me, but my fiancé drinks a lot while he eats- and he felt uncomfortable flagging down the server every 2 minutes for refills. Why the tiny cups? If that's the case, then put the soda machine out where people can get their own refills. They serve alcohol here, which is different for this kind of restaurant-but pretty neat. The bathrooms are stunning. Impeccably clean, and the counter was really cool. We will definitely come back, but only after we've saved up. Unfortunately, we're not millionaires that can dish out almost a hundred...

Service: 5* Ambiance: 4* Food? 2* at most. I’m baffled this place has a 4* review, maybe if compared to a Panda Express!

Our food was 90% sugar, definitely not authentic and very much Americanized.

Szechuan Green Beans: just so so. LOTS of ginger, almost overpowering, but very sweet.

Pad Thai: probably the worst one we’ve had. We asked for it spicy, it was not. We were given Sriracha paste, which isn’t the right spicy to add to pad thai. Proteins were shrimp and chicken, and they were ok. But the lack of flavor under the minimal spicy offered was subpar, more like a typical grocery store sweet chili sauce out of a bottle. It was…not good. The best part of this dish was the lime slice…

Seafood Hot Pot: not a hot pot, just a bowl of curry. When I think hotpot, I think Taiwanese hot pot. This was just a bowl of coconut sauce, and it was bad; basically a bowl of coconut with curry dusted in. Seafood offered was good, but the “curry” coconut sauce was a major thumbs down. And the lack of actually being a hotpot was disappointing. And what really made it even worse was the fact that this was a specialty dish. This is not something I would call a specialty or a highlight, IMO.

Drinks were good (because they weren’t made here). All in all, I can’t fathom ever coming back here when there are such better places around! Good for someone wanting Americanized food, but...